Suspension
by The Wakka Man
Summary: THREE-PARTER. While visiting his girlfriend Linda Park, Kid Flash mysteriously disappears--and it's up to the Teen Titans to find him! And just what does Jinx have to do with all this? **COMPLETE!**
1. Act I

_Thap thap thap thap thap thap_

Her sneakers beat out a rhythm on the asphalt.

_Thap thap thap thap thap_

Linda Park, seventeen years old, a freshman at Coast City University, smiled to herself as she made the turn on the campus racetrack. Her boyfriend had turned her on to the idea of jogging as a way to stay in shape. Plus, after a full day of studying indoors, it was an excellent way to unwind.

Not, of course, that she'd ever love running the way _he_ did...

Then a red-and-yellow blur surrounded her.

Only the keenest of eyes could have noticed her pace slacken momentarily. "Hello there."

The blur turned into a lithe, spandex-clad boy with shockingly red hair, about her age and size, jogging beside her. "Hey, Jinx!" Kid Flash said, grinning widely.

"Wally!" she scolded. "I told you not to call me that!"

"Okay," he drawled, eyes sparkling. "..._Lindybird_."

"_Wally!_" she laughed, half exasperated, half amused. "You're incorrigible!"

"Yup. And you're invited to incorrige me all you want." With that, the Flash's protege took off on a full lap of the track, returning to her side before she could blink.

Linda Park, a.k.a. Jinx, a.k.a. (but only to Kid Flash) Lindybird, groaned. "Seriously, though--what if somebody heard you?"

He looked around. "Nobody here but us superchickens."

"All right, but--I just don't like being reminded of that part of my life."

"Sorry." He decided not to mention that he knew that she gained entry to the track by jinxing the lock and that she was out past curfew.

_I hope he doesn't know I'm trespassing and breaking curfew,_ Linda thought to herself. Truthfully, she _did_ tend to break some rules when they proved too inconvenient for her; but as for crime, she'd been completely clean for the last five months--ever since Wally entered her life, like a moralistic, wisecracking tornado.

But she still had an aversion to the name. Like most of the other HIVE Academy students, her name and costume had been designed by their career guidance counselor, Ms. Andi Edom. One look at her and she'd declared, "A goth, my dear, definitely a goth," and her appearance had been altered accordingly. Once she'd stopped applying hair dye and makeup, took out her colored contacts, and started going out in the sunlight more often ("90% of our 'work' was at night," as she'd once told Wally, she was no longer recognizable as the ex-leader of the Hive Five.

_There's no way you could tell she was once one of Jump City's most wanted criminals,_ Wally West thought to himself as he effortlessly kept pace with his girlfriend, stride for stride. Her jet-black hair was pulled into a ponytail, which bounced gently on the back of her equally black hooded sweatshirt; faded blue track pants and white sneakers completed her apparel. Her skin had also reverted to its natural pigmentation, a golden tan. In fact, she looked absolutely normal in every way save one: her eyes.

He still remembered the first time he'd seen them without the contacts. He'd been away from Linda for two weeks on various missions since a few days after the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil. When it was all over, he came to the apartment she was renting in Gateway City. He'd known that her initial appearance hadn't been her natural one, but he'd still been pleasantly surprised. "It won't be long now before you look just like a regular girl," he'd remarked.

Linda had hesitated and said, "I don't think so." Then, slowly, she'd taken off the sunglasses she'd been wearing.

He'd been dumbstruck. "Oh, wow," he'd whispered softly.

"What?"

"Your eyes..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Those eyes were downcast. "They're freakish."

"No, no, no..." He lifted her chin and looked straight into them. "They're like... like crystals--crystal balls... Like I can look into them and see the whole universe..."

"You--" her voice caught-- "you don't think they're--scary or anything?"

"I think you're gonna have to beat off the guys in your college with a stick."

She gasped, then grabbed him in a hug while sobbing near-hysterically. When she calmed down, he learned that he was the first person to ever compliment her pearly off-white irises, which, together with the catlike pupils they framed, had set her apart from the crowd since her birth. The other kids at the orphanage where she grew up tormented her over them; even when her powers manifested and she joined the HIVE--itself no hotbed of inconspicuous physiques--fellow students claimed to have been unnerved by them before she received her pink lenses.

While Wally's prediction hadn't come completely true--there were still some jerks who made fun of her--her self-esteem had received a tremendous boost that night. She no longer was the little girl desperately seeking the approval (and, by proxy, respect) of her elders.

Linda became aware that she was being stared at. "I've seen _that_look before. What're you thinking about?"

"Er--food."

"Food?" she repeated skeptically.

"Yeah, um, I think I'll go grab some burgers for when you're done."

"Is that _all_ you were thinking about?"

"Almost." Then he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and zoomed out of sight.

Linda felt herself blush; then she laughed out loud. That Wally! She never knew quite what to expect from him.

*** * ***

"Watch this, Linda! Watch me!"

True to his word, Kid Flash had gotten burgers--pickles and onions for her, extra mustard for him--as well as a bottle of soda, from an all-night fast-food joint. When Linda had jokingly pointed out that he'd forgotten the "incredibly romantic straws," he'd fetched those too in the blink of an eye.

Now, as she sat in the bleachers finishing her meal, she watched her boyfriend's antics on the field below. She had to chuckle; that soda had probably been a bad idea, but Wally had no one but himself to blame for his attack of hyperactivity. Long jump, high jump, pole vault, even (comically) an attempt at shot-putting, every so often pausing to shout, "Watch this!"; currently, he was doing what he did best: burning up the track.

"Linda! Hey, Linda!"

She swallowed the last bite of the burger. "Yes?"

"Watch me! Watch how fast I can go!" With that, the whole lap became a red-and-yellow blur.

She rolled her eyes. Boys! As soon as this latest testosterone display was over, she planned to bid him good night. Already she was planning how to sneak back into the dorm...

She blinked.

Then she saw it again.

For split seconds, the image of Wally in mid-run had appeared in the blur. There it was again--and again!

"Wally...?"

Little tingles ran up and down her body. Then, abruptly, every single hair on her head stood on end.

"Wally??"

There was a sound now--like a cross between a crackle and a hum. The number of "still" images increased, as did the pitch of the sound. Small objects beside the track--rocks, twigs, litter--began to rise up into the air.

"_Wally!_"

For an instant, the blur disappeared entirely, leaving only Wally, directly in front of her, frozen in mid-stride.

Then there was an enormous burst of light.

And when Linda blinked the sight back to her eyes--nothing.

Kid Flash had vanished.


	2. Act II

"So let me get this straight. Kid Flash was running at full speed around the track--"

"Right."

"--And then he just disappeared?"

"Right."

A green-furred bloodhound trotted up to them and morphed back into Beast Boy. "My nose confirms it: Kid Flash never left the racetrack."

Raven floated down to the ground next to them. "And I can sense no magic having been involved."

Linda groaned and looked at Robin imploringly. "You don't suppose he might be--d-dead?"

"I doubt it," he reassured her. "Trust me: we're going to search for him by _any_ means possible. Right, Cyborg?"

"'Sright, Robin," Cyborg answered, tinkering with some machinery a few feet away. "Just give me a few secs to calibrate the circuits."

Linda fidgeted. When Wally had disappeared, she'd initially ran around calling his name in a panic. Then, vowing cruel and unusual revenge if this were some sort of sick practical joke, she'd pulled her T-Communicator out of her gym bag and rang up the Teen Titans. Fortunately, they'd been in the middle of nothing more pressing than a game of Scrabble (Beast Boy was trying to convince everybody that "zqfmgb" was a real word), and it was only ten minutes from Jump City in the T-Ship before they arrived, hot to trot. She occupied herself with trying not to go to pieces.

"Got it!" Cyborg announced, hefting the gadget in his ham-sized hands. He pushed a button and it started whirring and blinking. "Okay, y'all, this thing's now tracking Kid Flash's personal bio-signature." He walked along the side of the track, muttering to himself and aiming the device, before pausing next to where Wally West had vanished. "Saaay... that's weird."

"What is it?"

The others crowded around him, looking at the oversized screen panel.

"Well, see here." He trained it on a point further back. "See that? That's his bio-energy particle decay trail." The screen superimposed on the track numerous lights of varying shapes and sizes, composing a blurred series of humanoid shapes; even as they watched, some of those further back winked out. "Now see _here_." Slowly, he panned it forward, until--

"Dude!"

"X'Hal!"

"What in the world--?"

Displayed on the screen was something entirely unexpected. It looked as though someone had taken and posed Kid Flash, covered him almost completely with tiny lights, and then removed his body, leaving behind a near-perfect three-dimensional outline. In addition, the outline was emitting from all over a veritable rainbow of shimmering particles.

"That ain't supposed to happen," Cyborg said flatly. "It should be impossible to get a reading even remotely like that unless the subject is present."

"Maybe he's invisible?" Beast Boy suggested.

The others glared at him.

"Eh heh heh," he chuckled nervously.

Cyborg's gaze was drawn back to the machine. "And that's not even the _strangest_ thing here," he muttered, twiddling a dial. "That glow? It's made of tachyons."

"Faster-than-light particles?"

"Right. And tachyons aren't _remotely_ supposed to show up on a bio-energy scan. The closest I've ever seen are a particle that, as far as I know, is unique to speedsters--and the tachyons here are interacting with them somehow."

"What're they called?"

He looked faintly embarrassed. "'Waxons'. Sorry, KF's idea."

Everybody groaned, except for Starfire, who looked puzzled. "I do not understand--is this Earth humor?"

"I'll explain it some other time, Star."

"I'm gonna need some more time with this thing," Cyborg continued.

"How _much_ time?" Linda flared up, teeth involuntarily gritted. "For all we know, his _life_ could be in danger!"

"You think I like it any more'n you do?" he retorted. "I ain't Superman. And some of these readings can't possibly be right... _Whoa!!_"

"Sorry! Sorry!"

"No, no! Do it again!" Cyborg yelled, pushing two buttons.

"What, this?" Beast Boy, who had gone over to the spot of the disappearance unnoticed, tentatively waved his hand in the air.

"Exactly." He pushed another button. "Well, well, well..."

"What'd I do? What'd I do?" Beast Boy ran over to rejoin the group. "I just, eh, wanted to make sure he really wasn't invisible."

"Well, y'all watch this." Cyborg pressed the button again, showing the rest of them a replay of what it had detected: when Beast Boy's hand passed through Kid Flash's "aura", bio-energy particles as far up as the shapeshifter's elbow got sucked in and disappeared while the tachyons flared wildly.

"The plot thickens," Cyborg mused. "Now I got good news and bad news. The bad news is, I don't know where to look for Kid Flash. The good news is, I've got an idea on _how_to follow him." He turned off the machine. "Raven--Starfire--" he jerked a thumb at the T-Ship-- "you're our heavy lifters--I need you to help me fetch some stuff from the Tower."

"What can we do to help?" Robin asked.

"Find a treadmill," Cyborg called over his shoulder as he ran to the ship. "Back in a few!"

And they blasted off, leaving behind three puzzled Titans (one honorary).

"Did he seriously say 'treadmill'?" Linda wondered.

"What's he want a treadmill for?"

"Maybe he's planning to train us all up until we're as fast as--" Linda's murderous glare cut Beast Boy off. "Ah, never mind."

"Know where we can get a treadmill at this time of night, Jinx?" Robin asked quickly.

"Sure," she answered, too stressed to correct him. "Follow me."

*** * ***

True to his word, Cyborg was back very soon. The three of them had just finished lugging the treadmill they'd appropriated from the CCU gym onto the racetrack when the T-Ship touched down, disgorging what appeared to be piles and piles of machinery on legs. Upon closer inspection, these turned out to be Cyborg, Starfire and Raven, carrying--physically or mentally--enough gadgetry to set up a hardware store or, alternatively, a nuclear power plant.

"I'm afraid to ask," Robin stated. "Where'd all this come from?"

"Dude, I recognize some of these things!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Control Freak used them to build that zapper thing in Episode 'Don't Touch That Dial!'!"

"I wish you'd stop calling our missions 'episodes' and giving them outlandish codenames," grumbled Raven, setting her load down. "You think our whole life is one big TV show or something?"

"Didn't you say you could break half the laws of physics with the equipment he had?" Robin asked, warily eyeing what looked like a giant purple turkey baster.

"Right."

"What's the rest of this for?"

"Breakin' the other half."

"With all this fancy stuff, what do you need a _treadmill_ for?" Linda asked Cyborg, who was turning on the bio-energy scanner again.

"Mind if I explained while we work?" he replied. "We're need to save as much time as possible."

She looked over his shoulder at the screen and gulped.

Kid Flash's outline was beginning to fade.

So the Titans began to work, placing the treadmill at ground zero. In between doing half of the work himself and giving instructions to the rest of them, Cyborg explained his plan. The treadmill's treads formed an infinite potential kinetic loop ("Huh?" "It can theoretically move in a circle forever, BB." "Oh."), which was not so unique in and of itself--the same could be said of a yo-yo, or a pinwheel propeller--but it _was_ large enough to adapt and use conveniently.

"So, what, what, we're going to run on this thing until we reach the correct speed?"

"No, Rae. Utilizin' the potential kinetic energy, your molecules will be sped up to a point that matches Kid Flash's without needing to move. That, o' course, is the bare bones of the matter. There are several other factors at play--that's why we're buildin' all this. Most of these things haven't even been _thought_ of, let alone tested. It's like a whole new branch of technology from scratch. I'm still not 100% sure just what it'll do."

"So, you're having the time of your life."

He chuckled. "Right, li'l dude. Now pass that blowtorch."

They labored on, in grim cameraderie. Linda, lethargic and often pausing to stare numbly into the distance, was jolted into a building frenzy when Cyborg announced a deadline. The energy outline was decaying, slowly but surely, and by his calculations they had fifty-eight minutes before the bio-signature became useless.

They finished it in fifty.

When it was done, the six of them paused to ruefully admire their handiwork.

"Sure won't win any design awards," Raven commented dryly.

"Y'all jus' wait till I release Version 2.0," Cyborg muttered.

From every angle but directly to the sides and above, the treadmill was completely obscured by gray mounds of metal, some curved, some boxlike. A large red light at the back blinked on and off. Two vents issued jets of steam at regular intervals. A glowing green liquid bubbled in a half-transparent container. The treadmill itself had suffered minimal exterior alteration, most notably a disquieting set of restraining clamps on the handrail.

Cyborg took another glance at the scanner. "Okay, people, hup-hup-hup; the sooner we get this cosmic treadmill rollin' the better I'll feel."

The others raced onto the treadmill. With five people, it was a bit of a squeeze.

"I feel like a sardine in a box," Starfire opined.

"_Can_," everybody else chorused.

She sighed. _I do not know if I shall ever fully understand the Earth language of the English,_she thought to herself. High Tamaranean (the language spoken by 95% of her homeworld's inhabitants), in marked contrast, held so few idioms or puns that there was a Royal Court member whose sole function was to discover or, if necessary, create them. These were were then used mostly by the court jester. Starfire bit back a smile at the memory. _Good old M'labrux..._Her thoughts were jolted back to the present by Cyborg's shout.

"Everyone in position?"

Robin made sure his feet and hands were in the right places, then looked back at his teammates for their confirmations. "Ready to go," he called back. He fought to keep a tinge of pride out of his voice. _Of course we're ready. All those hours of training I put us through weren't meant to produce a bunch of slobs. Why, we built all this in under an hour! _Organization_, that's the key..._

"Okay. Clamps, _on_!"

The hand restraints clicked into place. Beast Boy jumped slightly, then hoped no one had noticed. _We built this thing in less than an hour and didn't even test it!_ he thought frantically. _This is crazy! What if it all goes kablooie? I don't want to go kablooie!_ He took a few deep breaths and looked over at Cyborg. Did he trust him with his life? _Absolutely,_ he answered himself immediately, and relaxed. A little.

"Power, _on_!"

Raven watched Beast Boy's shoulders bunch up again in front of her as the machine started a hum that rose up through their feet. She, of course, knew it to be pointless to worry about the future, since it couldn't be changed, but merely dealt with as it happened. Still, she decided to shut her eyes and begin chanting silently. _Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos... Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..._

"Aaannd... here we _go_!"

_I'm coming, Wally!_ Linda yelled silently as lines of electrical discharge engulfed them. Than a wave of nausea hit her, and she shut her eyes tightly. There was now a loud crackling in the air, and wild vibration of the contraption, and grunts of effort from the Titans, and a sound like someone screaming--

Her eyes snapped open.

Someone _was_ screaming.

Cyborg.

Acting on pure instinct, she unleashed a burst of entropy energy that jinxed the clamps on her hands open, vaulted unsteadily out of the treadmill, and ran towards the makeshift control panel, where the team's tech genius was screaming in agony, body spasming violently, his armor's circuitry aglow. Calculating swiftly, she leaped and slammed her shoulder into him, sending them both tumbling several feet away just as there was another

_**FLASH**_

and when she turned her head and looked back, the treadmill was empty.

She slumped back to the ground and touched her shoulder gingerly. "Owww," she moaned. _That's gonna become one heckuva bruise._ Then she remembered and got up. "Cyborg?"

"Ooohh..."

She knelt over him. "Cyborg, what happened?"

He groaned. "Can't... talk. Need... battery pack. Front seat. Under... chair."

She raced to the T-Ship and found in the indicated place a bulky black and red box with shoulder straps. Lifting it--barely--she returning to Cyborg's side, placing it on his back and connecting some wires per an instruction list written on the back.

"Oog." He sat up. "Thanks."

"Cy--what _happened_?"

"I don't know. When we opened a pathway to--wherever Kid Flash is--my energy levels dropped like a rock. Like something in that place--or the place itself--was leeching, feeding off me." He shuddered. "I can't risk getting near that machine again while it's still running."

Linda eyed the control panel worriedly. "I can--but I don't know what to do with it."

He considered this. "Hang on." He brought his hand up to his face. There was a popping sound, and he was holding out his robotic eye. "There," he told her, "everything this sees, I see."

Cyborg watched her walk away with it. _For her sake--for _all_ our sakes,_ he thought, _I hope they can find him and make it back._

Linda Park sat down in front of the buttons and dials and switches and felt very much alone. _Oh, Wally, I know I did the right thing--but I really wish you'd come back!_

*** * ***

_I am dreaming. I am totally dreaming._

Robin gazed about him in awe. Bolts of slow-moving lightning zigzagged lazily past him. Yellow and orange streaks filled the air. A whole new dimension--possibly a completely different plane of reality. And they were in it.

"Wheeee!"

Of course, "awe" wasn't the emotion this evoked in _everybody_...

"Gangway!" Beast Boy, no more than a distant speck, barreled past the group and to another faraway point, in no more than a second. "Awright! Yeah!" he laughed, returning and beginning to run in circles around them. "Dudes, thisissosweet--"

_And time shifted and perceptions blurred and his arm reached out--_

And Robin grabbed Beast Boy's arm in mid-run. "Rein it in. We're not here to have fun." _Wow,_ he added to himself exultantly, at odds with his purposeful demeanor, _so that's what Wally feels like--all the time._

"Robin is correct, Starfire said. "We must locate our missing friend."

Robin took out his T-Communicator and powered it up. "His communicator's still on." He brought it to his lips. "Kid Flash? Kid Flash, do you read me? Come in, Kid Flash."

Nothing but static answered him.

He sighed and pocketed it. "So much for that lead." Then he frowned. "What's this?" He pulled his hand back out, holding a bright pink berry.

"Oh!" Starfire colored. "Apologies, Robin--I forgot that I had left a zorka berry within it."

"You've been hiding zorka berries in Robin's belt?" Raven wondered.

She nodded. "And in other places as well."

Now it was Robin whose face flushed.

Beast Boy chuckled nervously. "Uh... why?"

"Well, one day I was watching the program of the CSI, and within it they used a dog of the police to help locate the crime's solution, so I wondered if Silkie might not also be trained to do the tracking of the criminals."

"How'd he do?"

"I believe the word is 'stinky'."

Robin dropped the berry. "Now that we're done with that particular subject, I propose we begin combing the area for clues, first as a unit, then singly."

The other voiced their assent to the plan.

"Okay. On your mark... get set... Titans, go!"

And they were_ off, running and running and letting the speed-energy flow through them and running and running--_

Until Robin bellowed, "Titans, _stop_!"

The rest screeched to a halt. "What is it? Did you see something?" Beast Boy asked eagerly.

He scowled at the ground (if you could call it a ground--it was flat and they were standing on it and that was about all that could be said for it). "Yeah--and that's the problem." He bent down and picked up something small and pink. "This look familiar to you?"


	3. Act III

"How's the picture?"

"Nice and clear, Ji--Linda."

Linda drummed her fingers on the panel. Using a sweatband and some spare slivers of metal, she'd managed to place Cyborg's eye over her own like an eyepatch. Over the past twenty minutes, it had enabled him to advise her how to deal with the machine via T-Communicator.

"Show me the doorway's bio-signature again."

She obliged. When the other Titans had followed Wally to Whereverland, their energy readings had been sucked into his like Beast Boy's hand earlier--and in an unforeseen side effect, its shape had morphed into shomething flat and vaguely rectangular, leading them to dub it "the doorway", which worked out pretty neatly from a metaphorical viewpoint.

Cyborg closed his human eye, the better to concentrate on the visual data. Pacing back and forth, he muttered to himself, "Mesons, submesons, bosons, hah, 'waxons'..." He paused. "Oh, dear."

"_What_? What is it?" Linda's anxiety-riddled voice burst over the connection.

_Well, ain't no way to pussyfoot around it._ "Remember how I pointed out that the bio-signature's decay slowed almost to a standstill after they entered the doorway?"

"Yeah?"

"It's speedin' up again. Maybe even faster'n before."

She gripped the control panel convulsively. "What does that mean for him--for us?"

"Well," he hedged uncomfortably, "I can't say for sure--seein' as how this whole business's new to me--but if I had to make a conjecture--Robin and the guys will still be able to make it back because they were sent artificially."

Linda felt dizzy. "And--Wally?"

"Um. He--might not be able to find the way--without having a starting point to sense to return to. Maybe. I could be wrong," he finished lamely.

In the oppressive silence that followed, the beeping from one of the panel's instruments was a welcome distraction.

"Nudge that dial two notches. Right--now push the button next to it and watch those numbers, if they drop below 200 we'll..."

*** * ***

"We did not move at all from where we had started?"

"Impossible! I could feel the--the _speed_ coursing through me! We musta run hundreds, [i]thousands[/i] of miles!"

"The fact remains," Robin repeated, tossing the berry into the air and catching it. "We inadvertantly marked our starting point, and the marker remained in the same place. Hence, so did we."

"But Beast Boy was running _to_ and _from_ us before," Raven pointed out.

"Obviously, the physics of this place are a little wacked out," Robin replied.

"You can say that again."

He froze. "...Who said that??"

"I did."

The four of them craned their necks, trying to catch a glimpse of their unseen visitor. A whistle wrenched their gaze upward, where they beheld a wholly unexpected sight.

It was a man, older than them, decked out in a blue-and-white costume with a half-facemask. And, most, arrestingly, he was standing upside down, ten feet over their heads.

Beast Boy was the first to find his voice. "What're you doing up there?"

"I might ask the same of you."

"Eh?"

"What are [i]_you_[/i] doing up there?"

Robin was trying to formulate an answer when he, like the others, suddenly felt the "ground" shift beneath his feet. A moment of vertigo, and then they all fell up--or, rather, _down_, landing in a highly ignominious heap at the stranger's feet.

_If he cackles evilly, I'm going to kill him,_ Robin decided.

Instead, the man held out a hand to help him up. "This is your first time in the Speed Force, I'll bet," he said.

_"Speed Force"--so that's what this place is called,_ Robin thought.

"Uh--were we on the ceiling before," Beast Boy asked, "or are we _all_ on the ceiling now, or...?"

"Up? Down? It's a real puzzler, isn't it?" He smiled enigmatically. "You--you look like the leader of this little group, I'll bet you've been thinking that over."

Robin jumped. He'd actually been trying to place the man's accent--it was sometimes American Midwest, sometimes Southern, and for a few seconds it had sounded like native Brooklyn. Still, he made an educated guess on the spot and said, "It's like outer space--no true up _or_ down."

The man beamed. "Correct!"

"But that is because there is no gravity in the outer space," Starfire objected.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Gravity? What gravity?"

Suspicious, Robin moved his foot around--and felt no resistance. For all intents and purposes, they were all now floating in mid-air.

"Stop it!" Raven glared at the stranger. "I can sense it--he's warping the place, controlling it."

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Guilty as charged."

"[i]_Why_[/i]?" Robin demanded.

"You are not... 'speedsters'. Is that not so?"

"Yes."

"I suspected as much. Any true speedsters would be able to manipulate the Speed Force at least in the most rudimentary fashion."

Abruptly, Robin felt his muscles becoming lead weights. Turning his neck with difficulty, he could see that his teammates were also experiencing the same problem--and around their feet, the bright colors of the Speed Force were fading to gray.

"But _you_," the man finished, face hardening, "cannot."

_Uh-oh. Better try the old "apologetic" routine._

"Look... you're obviously the... master of this place... just let us get what... we came for... and we'll just... leave."

"I? _Master_ of the Speed Force?" He barked out a laugh. "On the contrary--in a manner of speaking, it's the master of me? I'm merely a servant, a voluntary defender of the realm." The Titans felt his hold over them slacken. "And I'm more than capable of defending myself as well."

They pounced.

"Tsk, tsk."

As one, they swiveled to find him standing right behind them. "More than capable," he repeated. "No other speedster has ever been able to manipulate the Force like me; none ever will. And I know this, because using it, I can traverse Time itself." A finger shot out and pointed at Robin. "You, for instance--how'd you like to find yourself on Earth circa 365 million BCE, staring an oncoming asteroid in the face?"

_I don't think I'd like that at all,_ he thought, but said instead, "What's the point of this little demonstration?"

"Consider this the actions-speak-louder-than-words equivalent of 'Private Property, Trespassers Will Be Persecuted'."

"Fine. We'll leave. But not without Kid Flash."

The stranger looked startled. "Kid Flash... Barry's nephew?"

Robin winced. One of the habits he'd picked up in his Gotham City days was an overriding desire to keep superheroes' civilian identities as secret as possible, even among fellow heroes. "Yeah."

He didn't exactly chuckle, but the man's eyes were suddenly a lot friendlier. "_Well_ now--that does put a new spin on things."

"I take it that you know the Flashes, --uh--what's your name?"

"You can call me Max. Yeah, I know 'em; us speedsters are a close-knit community." The newly-dubbed Max rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You still don't belong here... but I certainly can't refuse to let you get your friend back. Is this the kid's first time in the Speed Force?"

"We have not heard him make the mention of it previously," Starfire volunteered.

"Hmm. Then perhaps I'd better come with you."

As they ran, Max elucidated about the Speed Force (from which all speedsters drew their power). As they already knew, physically running within the Force without a visual reference point was useless--"physically", that is, because of its variable proportions. To actually move from one point to another without one, the trick was to let the Force "flow" through them while moving, thus propelling them along like invisible cables. Locating Kid Flash, meanwhile, could be done by sensing and following vibrational disturbances within the Force.

"How'd you know we weren't speedsters?" Robin asked offhandedly.

"Your costumes are all wrong. Especially the capes. Here it's okay, but in a word with drag and friction and speedster wearing a cape is 'dumber'n a wet shoelace', as my Pappy used to say."

_So--almost certainly Western-born,_ Robin reflected, _but probably moved around a lot since then._

A few minutes later, Beast Boy was the first to spot Kid Flash, a distant speck on the non-horizon.

"Hey! There he is!" he yelled. "Yoohoo! Dude! Hey--Kid Flash!!"

"Can't he hear us?" Raven asked Max.

He looked troubled. "He _should_ be able to."

"Well, he isn't slowing down," Robin said grimly. "Everybody, pour on the speed!"

Not natural speedsters, the Titans found it easier to run with a reference point to concentrate on. Nevertheless, it took a major effort on their part just to get within 100 feet of the runaway Wally West. And still their calls had no effect.

"What's wrong with him?"

"You can't sense it? Close your eyes and focus on him!"

Robin did, then popped his eyes back open in alarm.

"He's like a ball of fire!"

"Right! The Speed Force is takin' over him! It happens sometimes!"

"What if it succeeds?"

"Then he becomes one with the Force."

"Like Obi-Wan Kenobi*?"

"Something like that, green kid."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* - **AN:** I have no idea what the TTU analogue of Obi-Wan's character is called in _Clash of the Planets_. Deal with it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Can't you slow him down--suck away some of the speed?" Robin aksed.

"I'll try."

A moment later, Max staggered in pain.

"Nngh... Boy's got some real talent... Force running wild... I can slow him down... but I gotta stop running... up to you... to catch him!"

"Do it," Robin ordered.

At the speed they were running, the halted figure of Max immediately disappeared into the distance behind them--but now that of Kid Flash was also drawing closer.

Pulling up alongside him, Robin grabbed his arm and got shaken off. He then shouted right into his ear, "Kid Flash, stop running!"

Still no reaction.

"_Wally!_" he screamed in frustration.

This time, something _did_ happen--Kid Flash turned his face turned Robin's. But no recognition showed on it, and his eyes were blank expanses of white.

Robin gasped and fell back in shock. "Oh, man... I think we may be too late!"

"Do not do the giving up, Robin!" Starfire replied. "There must be some way for us to save him!"

"Maybe we're going about this all wrong," Raven suggested. "Just now, you finally got a reaction from him by using a name--his real name, right?"

"Yes."

"Then perhaps it's time for us to stop trying to get the attention of Kid Flash, and focus instead on the guy behind the mask."

And now the contents of their calls changed.

"Wally!"

"Wally! Wally _West_!"

"Wallace Rudolph West, slow down!"

The runner ahead of them shook his head in the manner of one trying to dislodge an insect.

"Keystone City!"

"Wally!"

"Video games! _Mega Monkeys 4_!"

"Uncle Barry! Barry Allen!"

"Pepperoni and anchovies double cheese pizza! Listen to us!"

The runner faltered--

"Wally!"

"Linda!"

"Jinx! Linda Park!"

That did it.

Kid Flash fell to his knees; the others overshot him by several miles, but returned to his side in an instant. "Kid Flash--_Wally_," Robin amended-- "are you okay? How do you feel?"

The teen speedster got to his feet shakily. That is, his whole body was shaking, or more accurately vibrating, threatening to blur itself into a cloud of kinetic energy; small streams of power still crackled from his eyes, now turned to Robin's and wide with wonder. "My gosh... I was riding the lightning."

*** * ***

Linda slumped in her seat, exhausted.

For the past ten minutes the treadmill and its control panel had demanded her full attention, as both machines seemed intent on malfunctioning themselves into scrap metal. Cyborg had begun to go hoarse from the continuous stream of instructions he'd been directing at her; but all the jumping and fiddling seemed to have worked, as she finally had her first respite since...

She sat bolt upright. When _had_ she last checked the doorway's status?

Quickly, she powered up the bio-signature scanner, aimed it, and look at the screen.

And stared in horror.

With every passing second, dozens of particles were winking out of existence.

A moan escaped her. Cyborg, viewing the readout via his eye, kept silent. There was absolutely nothing he could say to her.

Unwilling to see any more, Linda turned off the scanner and gazed at the treadmill. "C'mon, Fastest Kid Alive," she breathed. "You can do it. I know you can. Please... Oh, please..."

*** * ***

"We need to get out of here," Robin stated. Kid Flash, whose body's vibrations had died down, was propped up between him and Starfire; his legs still felt untrustworthy. "I don't know if we're racing a clock, but the sooner we get Kid Flash home, the better."

As Starfire lookd around in vain for the competitive timepiece, Raven asked, "Any idea how we're going to do that?"

"We could ask _him_," Beast Boy suggested, pointing at an approaching figure.

It was Max, sprinting toward them jerkily; stray beams of energy crackled around his body, which had become semi-transparent. "No time," he said peremptorily upon reaching them. "Power backwash. Gotta leave. So do you. Focus on entry point. Goodbye." He waved. "Good luck..."

And just like that, he faded out of the Speed Force.

"You heard the man," said Robin. "Focus."

Raven, with her mental expertise, was the first to fade out. Beast Boy, whimsically clicking his heels and mumbling "There's no place like home", was next. Starfire gave Robin's hand a quick squeeze before she, too, followed.

Silence reigned in the Speed Force.

Then: "You didn't leave."

"Neither did you."

"I chose not to."

"I can't." Kid Flash shook his head wearily. "Home... it's all so vague now... like a dream." He sighed. "Can't focus. Been running for so long... want to keep running..."

"That's nothing more than a siren song, Wally," Robin said sharply. "You know what happened to the sailors who followed the Sirens' songs, don't you?"

"Right, Dick," he admitted, half-smiling crookedly. "They died."

More silence.

"I'm not leaving without you."

Kid Flash put his hands to his head. "I want to go. I really do. But--I can't find my way back... can't focus on anything hard enough."

"There must be something. _Something_. Think! What matters to you most in the whole wide world?"

*** * ***

When Raven came flying out of the treadmill, Linda had stared dumbfoundedly for a second, then screamed, "Oh my God, Cyborg, they're coming back!"

Beast Boy and Starfire had followed in quick succession, sending her jumping for joy as they landed on the grass like fumbled footballs.

But as the seconds passed and turned into minutes, hope turned to dread, and now Linda stood stock-still, hands clapsed in front of her face, oblivious to anything but the ominously empty machinery.

Unobtrusively, Cyborg turned on the bio-signature scanner and looked at it.

Underneath the fresh particle trails of the three returned Titans, the doorway vanished completely.

A gasp from Linda brought his head back up.

The treadmill and its attachments had wound down.

And Linda Park fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably.

The four surviving Titans looked on, stricken and numb.

_Nooo! This isn't supposed to happen!_ Beast Boy thought disbelieveingly. _We're the good guys! We always win! Okay, maybe not _always_, but we're _supposed_ to win!_

Starfire's mind was blank. While their team had known failure before, it had never been of this magnitude, or on such a personal level. In short, she was in shock.

Raven's mind was blank too, but for a different reason. If she allowed any of the emotions she was holding tightly in check to surface, there was no telling what manner of havoc she could cause with her feeling-based powers.

_Oh, God,_ Cyborg thought despairingly, _we've lost two for the price of one._

Then an unfamiliar tingling sensation swept through the air.

Unfamiliar, that is, to all but one.

Linda's tears dried up as she slowly lifted her head. She did not want to hope too much, for fear that another denial from Lady Luck might mean the end of her, but she couldn't help it. _Can it possibly be...??_

That's when the treadmill's mechanical attachments abruptly rose into the air, and that's when she _knew_.

As the four Titans behind her looked on in astonished bewilderment, Linda slowly got to her feet, a 100-megawatt smile beginning to creep across her face.

The machinery began vibrating, then spinning in a circle, then exploding into millions of component atoms--but she noticed none of this, having eyes only for the empty treadmill.

Which began to glow.

And inside the glow appeared a shape.

And the shape resolved into two running figures, one holding onto the other.

And there was an enormous burst of light.

And when Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Cyborg and Linda blinked the sight back to their eyes--there was the treadmills, its treads grinding to a halt under the feet of Robin and Kid Flash.

A moment later, the sounds of joyous celebration filled the night sky.

*** * ***

"But how did you do it, man?" Cyborg asked, some time later. "What you focused on to get back to here, you must feel very strongly about. But what was it?"

As Wally West turned his head ever so casually, his eyes met those of Linda Park.

And a lifetime's worth of communiaction passed between them.

"Sorry," Kid Flash said lightly, as Linda (a.k.a. Jinx, a.k.a. Lindybird) stifled a grin and wiped her suddenly moist eyes, "but on that issue, I think I'll choose to leave you in suspension."


End file.
